Breivik Attacks 'Psychotic' Diagnosis in Court

Mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik charges that 'if I had been a bearded jihadi' no one would question his sanity

Contact Editor

Gabe Kahn, 25/04/12 19:27

Anders Behring Breivik, Trial Day 7

Rueters

Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik on Wednesday sharply criticized a psychiatric report that declared him psychotic and not culpable for his actions.

Breivik said the report is based on "evil fabrications" designed to cast him as irrational and unintelligent. "It is not me who is described in that report," Breivik said.

The self-described anti-Muslim militant has confessed to killing 77 people in bomb and shooting attacks on 22 July 2011, but pleaded not guilty saying his acts were "cruel but necessary."

He asserts his victims – eight killed in a bombing outside a government building in Oslo and 69 in a shooting spree at a Labor Party youth camp on Utoya Island – betrayed Norway by embracing multiculturalism and immigration.

A second psychiatric examination found Breivik sane. The five-judge panel trying the case must consider both reports as Breivik and prosecutors duel over the question of his sanity.

If found to be sane, Breivik faces a 21-year prison sentence or an alternative custody arrangement insofar as he is considered a threat to society. Breivik has derided such a sentence as "pathetic" saying the only acceptable options are acquittal or execution.

If found criminally insane, Breivik would be committed indefinitely to compulsory psychiatric care.

Breivik, whose cold and relentless five-day testimony came to an end earlier this week, showed no emotion as officials described the carnage and chaos at the scene of his bombing in Oslo.

He smiled cynically, however, when witnesses described his ideology as "absurd" and said he had "crazy ideas."

Expressing irritation, the 33-year-old Breivik accused the two psychiatrists who declared him psychotic of deciding on the diagnosis based on their emotional response to the attacks.

The diagnosis Breivik is fighting caused an uproar in Norway, where many rejected the notion that a man who methodically planned his attacks and then executed them with lethal precision could be found mentally incompetent.

The court therefore ordered a second opinion, which concluded that Breivik was sane.

However, a panel of experts charged with verifying the validity of both reports cited "weaknesses" in the second evaluation and asked the authors to provide additional information.

Earlier this week, Breivik lamented in court that his sanity was being questioned.

He charges the prosecution strategy attacking his sanity makes him the victim of "clear racism" and that prosecutors are seeking to "delegitimize" his radical right-wing ideology.

"If I had been a bearded Jihadi there would be no report at all... There would not be a need for a psychiatric evaluation," he said.